A Verge story on hacking your robot vacuum so it doesn’t phone home.

You’re not wrong. At a certain point it becomes exhausting. However please don’t lose sight of the fact that this is exactly what company’s want. They want us to give up all of our data because it’s too inconvenient to be upset about it.

So yes, there is likely a line drawn for when having to flash all your devices with custom firmware becomes not worth it for the individual, however the amount of data that gets collected from “smart” devices is absolutely fucking disgusting and we desperately need actual comprehensive data privacy laws.

I’d say it’s about harm reduction at this point rather than harm elimination. Do what you reasonably can to protect your privacy but don’t let your mental health suffer because you’re paranoid that someone is going to hack your robot vacuum.

m_r_butts
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-18M

My stance is to just not own one of the fucking things. There’s your harm elimination. There is no data collected for me to protect.

How about your car?

m_r_butts
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18M

Intentionally about 20 years old and no connectivity.

darkstar
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18M

What happens in 20 years when you need a new car and all of them have connectivity, even the oldest second hand ones?

m_r_butts
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28M

I’m trying to make the best choices I can right now. In 20 years, assuming I’m still alive, I’ll try to make the best choices available to me then – which will probably be to still drive a car from circa Y2K. Cars don’t just turn to dust after 40 years. People today are absolutely horny for cars from the 50s and 60s.

darkstar
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18M

Fair point

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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